Howlin' Wolf is one of those blues artists that even non-fans of the genre recognize. Born as Chester Burnett in 1910 in West Point, Mississippi, he picked up the guitar in his late teens, mentored by Delta blues legend Charlie Patton. A contemporary of Muddy Waters, Elmore James, and Sonny Boy Williamson, Burnett often played alongside these greats as they all traveled the same Southern blues circuit. It wasn't until the late 1940s, after a stint in the army during World War II, that Burnett decided to pursue music as a full-time vocation.
Giant of the Blues
Moving northward to West Memphis, Arkansas, Howlin' Wolf began recording sides for Chicago's Chess label through Sam Phillips' Memphis Recording Service. Ain't Gonna Be Your Dog presents 14 of these Memphis cuts, recorded in the early 1950s and featuring the young bluesman backed by talents such as Hubert Sumlin and James Cotton.
By the time that Burnett moved to Chicago to become a full-fledged Chess label artist in the mid-50s, he was an established name in the genre. He would continue to be a major player in the blues, a not-so-friendly competition arising between Wolf and another Chicago bluesman, Muddy Waters.
Howlin' Wolf's Ain't Gonna Be Your Dog
Wolf's late-1950s/early-60s output is what sealed his legend as a great blues performer and can be attributed not only to Wolf's own charismatic talents, but to the instrumental contributions of long-time collaborator Sumlin and the skilled hand of songwriter Willie Dixon. Recording a number of Dixon compositions, Howlin' Wolf made them his own with inspired guitar playing and his magnificent trademark mouth harp work.
Ain't Gonna Be Your Dog pulls together 42 wonderful Howlin' Wolf performances, from the aforementioned early Memphis sides to the landmark Chicago Chess sessions, including several cuts from the late-1960s and early-70s as well as alternate takes and more than a few unreleased songs. It is an excellent companion to the earlier released Chess box set, and well worth getting for fans for whom that set served as an introduction to this brilliant and complex artist.
The Reverend's Bottom Line
Ain't Gonna Be Your Dog, by covering almost 20 years of Howlin' Wolf's creative output, firms up any claims made for his considerable songwriting skills and instrumental talents. By including a wealth of Wolf's earliest, Sam Phillips-produced sides with the Chess material, the two-disc set serves as a true anthology of the Chicago bluesman's talents.
Sadly out-of-print, but worthy of a place on your shelf alongside Wolf's other essential works, Ain't Gonna Be Your Dog is worth digging up if you can find a copy. (Chess Records/MCA, released 1994)
